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Twenty Questions for New Artists

admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:24:36 -0700

Article:

by Chris Castle and Amy E. Mitchell

You’ve decided to form a band. Let’s get your business in order.
What are the most important things you can do to make sure that you don’t trip
yourselves up down the road? What can you do now to make sure that when you hire lawyers
and accountants you don’t have to pay later for them to fix business mistakes you could have
avoided? Here are 20 questions to ask yourselves before you get too far.
1. Appoint a Band Administrator: One band member needs to be responsible for keeping
track of the papers and information relating to the band’s business, such as receipts, bank
statements, payments, approvals for licenses, etc. This doesn’t mean that the band appoints
someone to make decisions on behalf of the band, just to make sure that there’s one person to
communicate the band’s decisions to the outside world and share in the burden of keeping track
of the band’s business. You should also decide what rules you are going to follow amongst
yourselves to make voting decisions about spending money, contracts, tours, hiring/firing, etc.
2. Band Agreements/Business Organizations; Accountants. If the band has (or thinks
they have) already signed a band agreement or formed a business organization, then ask to see
copies of all agreements and formation documents. If not, it is a good idea to prepare some
baseline band agreement to cover key issues such as leaving members and how decisions are
made, who can sign checks, etc. This is also a good time to consider getting the band an
accountant or bookkeeper familiar with tour accounting and receipt-intensive travel.
3. Tax Returns: A common mistake that bands make is to have all income paid to one
band member, which usually results in unnecessarily complex adjustments at tax time. You
should find an accountant in your geographical area who is familiar with music issues and band
accounting and take a meeting with that accountant (preferably a Certified Public Accountant,
that special kind of accountant who has passed licensing examinations).
4. Insurance: Many bands overlook the importance of insurance, often until it is too late.
Even if they don’t overlook it, they don’t fully understand why their coverage may be lacking.
From hard experience, we assume that insurance companies exist to deny coverage, so we are
somewhat obsessive about this issue. We ask that the band meet with an insurance agent
experienced in music industry insurance and get a report from that agent about the coverage the
band has compared to what the band needs. In the early days, the band may not have sufficient
monies to both get insurance and set up limited liability entities. We always recommend
insurance in this case.
Copyright 2007-2009 Christian L. Castle (clcasst@christiancastle.com) and Amy E. Mitchell
(amy@christiancastle.com ). All Rights Reserved.
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WWW .CHRISTIANCASTLE. COM
CHRISTIAN L. CASTLE, ATTORNEYS
LOS ANGELES • SAN FRANCISCO
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5. Legal Names of Members and Professional Name of Band: Each member should
provide the member’s full legal name. This will be necessary for contracts, registration of
copyrights, etc. It is a good idea to have a list of each member’s cell phone and email so you can
give that to anyone who needs to reach you, particularly on the road or in case of emergencies.
6. Date of Birth and Nationality: First, you want to know how old the players are so that
if someone is under the age of 18, you will be prepared for any issues in your state relating to age
of consent (usually for contracts) and employment law (performing in clubs that serve alcohol,
for example). Often this involves having a parent or guardian available to sign off on any written
agreements. Many states have court procedures that can allow minors to have special rights to
do business or make contracts, such as “emancipated minor” laws or “judicial ratification” of
contracts. Do not assume that these laws apply to minors in your band without talking to an
experienced labor lawyer familiar with your state.
It’s also handy to have each member’s date of birth available for any copyright
registration applications you file (such as Form PA for musical compositions) because the U.S.
Copyright Office often requires applicants to include the year of birth. If you are going to be
touring outside of the U.S., be sure you consult an experienced immigration lawyer before you
commit to any contracts.
7. Passport: If the band is planning to tour internationally—including Canada and
Mexico—each member (and any crew traveling with you) must have a valid passport. You
should get a photocopy of the inside pages of the passport (in case of loss or damage and for
immigration forms). It may also be useful to calendar the expiration date of each passport so that
you can quickly know if one member’s passport is set to expire. There are services that can turn
around a passport renewal in 24-48 hours, but they are expensive. There is also an expedited
passport renewal process at the Passport Office in Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, but that, too,
is an expensive process. While it may not be your job to keep track of these things once the band
gets a manager in place, it is well to have the information at hand.
8. Instrument(s) Played, Brand and Inventory: While band members will know who
plays what, it’s useful to have a written record of who plays what so you can give it to someone
else (such as a manager). Also, having information about the instrument(s) and brand(s) that a
member uses could prove useful in strategizing for sponsorship opportunities. We also
recommend having the band complete an inventory of instruments for insurance purposes
(including serial numbers if available), complete with photographs or video of the instruments.
This visual record is especially useful with customized, rare or one-of-a-kind instruments.
9. Split Sheets: Song splits are probably the most sensitive conversations that a band
has together. Attorneys are well advised to give the topic a wide berth, other than to make sure it
gets done. This is another one of those discussions that is better had before the band is making
money.
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WWW .CHRISTIANCASTLE. COM
CHRISTIAN L. CASTLE, ATTORNEYS
LOS ANGELES • SAN FRANCISCO
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10. Performing Rights Society Affiliation: There is a bit of strategy involved with
affiliating with a performing rights society in the U.S.. All the societies have a creative staff.
The decision to affiliate with a particular society should be made after the artist/writer has taken
some meetings with the performing rights society and decided if there’s more love coming from
one than another. Most of the time we like to wait until the music is fairly well formed and the
band has gelled into a working unit before approaching the societies. In more experienced
bands, the writers will already have an affiliation, so it is a good idea to know this in advance for
purposes of servicing the creative staff with new music, competing for slots on compilations and
festival shows, etc. The major U.S. performing rights societies are the American Society of
Composers, Authors and Publishers (www.ascap.com), Broadcast Music, Inc. (www.bmi.com)
and the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (www.sesac.com). (SESAC is a now
based in Nashville, TN, despite the “European” reference in its name).
11. Publishing Company: Do the writer members of the band have a publishing or
administration deal or are you self-published? Multiple publishing deals in the same band are
less frequent problems for independent artists, but it does happen, and it can add a layer of
complexity when shopping for a new publishing deal. Keep in mind that if the writers have
affiliated with ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC as a writer, their publishing company must follow the
same affiliation. Another wrinkle comes with writers who are affiliated with foreign societies
(e.g., SOCAN, MCPS-PRS). If you have a foreign society writer or co-writer on your songs, you
should consult with your U.S. society or an experienced music lawyer to determine how to
handle your affiliation and registrations.
12. SoundExchange Artist or Copyright Owner: Featured recording artists and bands
that own their own sound recordings should register with SoundExchange, the U.S. performing
rights organization for sound recordings. Registration forms are available on the
SoundExchange website (www.soundexchange.com) and membership is free. It is a good idea
to check the PLAYS database (which can be done online with a simple registration) for any titles
of your band’s recordings to see if the recordings are already included in the database or are mis-
13. Marital Status: Common problems arising from marriage that require planning
include divorce (and the state law community property issues) and heirs (if a member dies). The
band might be stuck dealing with the (sometimes resentful or surly) widow or widower.
14. Trademark the Band Name/Logo: While there’s nothing new under the sun, you
should do your best to come up with an original name for your band. There may be other bands
using the exact same name. Don’t assume that the other band using your name is not
important—we have heard excuses from “we’ve heard the other band will break up” or “the
other band hasn’t logged into their myspace account in three months.” You should seek the
advice of an experienced trademark attorney to register your band’s name for trademark
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WWW .CHRISTIANCASTLE. COM
CHRISTIAN L. CASTLE, ATTORNEYS
LOS ANGELES • SAN FRANCISCO
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15. Myspace and Domain Names: Many bands think that if they have a Myspace page
they don’t need to get a domain name, too. It is better to secure rights in the band’s domain
name, even if they just have the band’s domain point to a Myspace page for the moment.
16. ISRC: Any sound recording copyright owner can apply at no charge for their own
Registrant Code that will allow them to generate their own International Standard Recording
Codes, or ISRCs. A Registrant Code is issued by the Recording Industry Association of
America (www.riaa.com). This is an important thing to have because the code designates the
copyright owner of the sound recording concerned and is frequently required by CD duplicators
as well as online music retailers. It is a very common practice for artists who do not have their
own ISRC to use someone else’s ISRC when making their tracks available online. Realize that
the ISRC you give may well create some implication of ownership (which can be rebutted, but
need not be there in the first place).
17. Aggregator: It is almost required that an independent artist sign up with an
aggregator in order to have their works serviced to many online outlets. Realize that mere
servicing does not do one thing toward making the artist less of a needle in a bigger haystack
online.
18. Pre-existing Contracts: Ask for copies of any contracts the band have previously
signed and any music industry contracts any of them have signed before they joined the band.
19. Union Membership: The two principal music industry unions are the American
Federation of Musicians (“AFM”) for musicians and the American Federation of Television and
Recording Artists (“AFTRA”) for vocalists. Any artist who has recorded a major label album
has likely already joined one or both unions. Knowing whether a musician is a union member is
important because union membership carries with it various restrictions such as a minimum fee
to perform at recording sessions (i.e., union scale), as well as payment of royalties such as the
Music Performance Trust Fund and the Special Payments Fund. If you have any band members
who play or sing on union sessions with any great frequency, they probably are or should be
members of one or both unions. AFTRA in particular has very good health insurance available
for near-free if the AFTRA member does over a certain threshold of work through the union
(currently approximately $20,000 per year).
20. Side Projects: All major label deals and many independent record deals require the
exclusive services of their recording artists. You should know what other recording projects, if
any, the individual band members have committed to and if there are any restrictions. This issue
may also come up when a musician signs an artist management contract or a merchandising deal.
There are many more than twenty questions for new artists to answer about their
business, but we think these are a good place to start.
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WWW .CHRISTIANCASTLE. COM
CHRISTIAN L. CASTLE, ATTORNEYS
LOS ANGELES • SAN FRANCISCO
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Other resources:
Austin Music Foundation (www.austinmusicfoundation.org)
Tipitina’s Foundation (www.tipitinasfoundation.org)
American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (www.aftra.com )
American Association of Independent Music (www.a2im.org)
Arts+Labs (www.artsandlabs.com )
ASCAP (www.ascap.com )
Association of Independent Music (www.aim.com)
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (www.house.gov/blackburn )
BMI (www.bmi.com)
Copyright Alliance (www.copyrightalliance.org )
Coolfer (www.coolfer.com)
Dean’s List (http://home.earthlink.net/~deankay/DeanKay_TheDean%27sList.html )
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (www.house.gov/doggett )
Andrew Keen (http://www.cultoftheamateur.com/ )
Kings of A&R (www.kingsofar.com)
Loyola University http://mondaynightforum.wordpress.com
Nashville Songwriters Association International (www.nashvillesongwriters.com)
PPL (www.ppluk.com)
The Register (www.theregister.co.uk )
RIAA link for ISRC Registrant Codes
(http://www.riaa.org/whatwedo.php?content_selector=whatwedo_is_r_c_codes )
SESAC (www.sesac.com)
Songwriters Guild of America (www.songwritersguild.com)
U.S. Copyright Office (www.copyright.gov)

Funding For Artists House

admin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:18:12 -0700

Funding For Artists House

Article:

Artists House has been funded by the Herb Alpert Foundation for the past four years. We are now attempting to apply for other funding from various governmental and private foundations. Here is our recent application to the Kauffman Foundation . We are asking our community for their suggestions and advice regarding possible funding opportunities. Please let us know what you think about our approach and if you have any suggestions concerning to whom we could send funding requests they would be greatly appreciated. We’re trying to keep AH free of advertising and free to all users. We are developing ideas to create revenue streams for long term sustainability but we need about two more years of funding (around $400,000) to give us the time and wherewithal to achieve that goal. Thanks for any advice or suggestions you might have. Testimonials that would help us make the argument that we’re having a qualitative impact with respect to our community would be very helpful as well.

Thanks, y’all! John Snyder

Click Here for the Document

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Governor Jindal and Small Business Development

John — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:02:15 -0800

Article:

We are all familiar with the Governor's commitment to developing the business community in Louisiana. His determination to bring about ethical reform in all areas of government and civic life have set a standard in the nation and built a necessary foundation for this business development.

The Governor's recent comments about arts funding are depressing to some but not to me. Because to me they indicate a change of attitude that is much needed in the music and arts communities. It is time to depend less on grants and donations and more on our selves and on our native entrepreneurial abilities as they pertain to our native talent.

We need the Governor's head, not his heart. We don't want him to believe, we want him to listen and consider, and we want his powerful intellect to be directed to the immediate opportunities that reside in the untapped, native talent of the citizens of his state.

What I mean is this: musicians create wealth out of the thin air of human imagination and experience when write a song, perform that song, or record that song. Authors, as well and anyone else whose creative works are animated by the copyright statutes, do the same. When I write down the words or the melody to a song, it is copyrighted, automatically, and it's not the protection that is primarily important, it is the RIGHTS that are primarily important.

The very act of writing down the original song creates the exclusive right to copy it and to distribute it, and even the exclusive right to control the public performance of it. No one can use it, translate it, or broadcast it on the Internet, in Walmart, on the radio, or in a club without my permission. These rights, along with their exceptions, create wealth and jobs.

These rights make recording companies, publishing companies, ASCAP and BMI, and all of the ancillary businesses, such as recording studios and CD plants, all members of the extended family of the song. The whole edifice is built on the songwriter. Culture becomes infrastructure.

So, musicians are a walking bundle of rights that can be monetized. The very act of doing what they do makes them a business. It is time that they run their businesses more like businesses, and if they can't, find someone who can. But even then, there is no way for an artist or a musician to avoid the fact that they are a business and that their only choice is whether they are going to be good at it or not, make money or not.

Talent, it has been said, is our state's greatest natural resource. It is renewable, it is "green", it requires only the infrastructure of the public school system, but otherwise it is not capital intensive. It requires minimal investment in the form of arts programs in the public schools. This is not a luxury, it is an economic necessity. The legislature has passed legislation that mandates minimal music and arts instruction but this mandate remains unfunded.

We should not confuse our love for music and art with some sort of warm and fuzzy, constantly demanding luxury. It is, on the other side of it, cold hard economic development. If we could harness 30% of the talent in this state we could create an economic engine that would create jobs, value, and wealth out of the creative imagination of our children and of our friends. We call this the Cultural Economy in this state, and that is no slogan. That is a fact. The creative community of this country, broadly defined creates a third of our GDP. Entertainment is still this country's number one export. Arts = business! Music has defined Louisiana. Louis Armstrong could only have come from New Orleans.

In addition to the musician, the artist, the author and the playwright, we need to immediately take steps to empower the music and entertainment entrepreneurs, the people who love marketing and design, sales and broadcast, producing and engineering, law and finance, management and business, as much as musicians love playing their instruments. It is THOSE people, all of those business school graduates, those law school graduates that this state raises up year after year, who could run these companies to market and distribute this endless natural resource of intellectual property. We need to keep a higher percentage of those people in the state. They are leaving the place they love because they find jobs elsewhere.

That should be our focus, the government's focus, and, as far as I'm concerned, the purpose of arts funders. It is not enough to give a musician rent money to write a song. You can give her money if you want. But if you want to help artists create sustainable careers, give them some business advice, some legal advice, give them business incubators and the tools to compete, and tell them how copyright law makes them producers of wealth with every breath they take.

Fund small business development in arts, entertainment, and the digital economy if you want to fund something. Fund education in the arts and in the business of the arts if you want to fund something. Fund something that has resonance, that keeps on giving, that creates start-ups by the thousands, that builds careers, that inspires people, that harnesses the power that absolute belief can generate. The people we're talking about are already motivated, intelligent, hardworking and dedicated people. Artists are NATURALLY entrepreneurial and are capable of creating an endless stream of "product" based only on their own talent. They are businesses on the hoof. The potential economic impact of an individual's creativity is the paradigmatic example of the power of one.

Fund workforce development AND small business development in the entertainment and music fields. This is not an investment that will take years to pay out. The state is filled with musicians, authors, and others with thousands of songs and creative works with thousands of potential revenue streams. This requires no plants be built, it has no negative impact on the environment, and there is no significant capital expense. This is SMART investing. It uses tax incentives to stimulate investment in industries where it's not just about the jobs, it's about the jobs that the jobs create. It makes the best of an existing reality and it projects an incredible return on a minimal investment.

A down payment could be a change in attitude. It is the artist and musician who creates the massive and sprawling entertainment world, and it just so happens that we have those people on every corner, in every classroom, and in every performance facility in this state. Tax incentives alone could sustain and kick-start this powerful new industry. We should be aggressive in their use. It's not about the money we don't collect, it's about the money that we will collect.

The workforce development programs and the tax incentives that are in place should be broadened and extended. And we need to be creative and innovative in their application and development. But we have the foundation and that's such a great advantage. The music and entertainment worlds aren't just businesses, they are communities of caring and innovative people. What better workforce than one that is inspired by their own beliefs? Lead this powerful army, Governor, towards our shared goals, and what we disagree about will not matter as much as what we agree on: small business development.

I know you're taking some heat, Governor, but if you're looking for a bright side it's that many of the citizens of your state are incipient businesses, poised to stimulate the economy of this state, not to mention its culture and tourism. We can no longer depend on the old sources of revenue and we do not want to depend on the generosity of strangers.

If you can't think of it as investing in the arts for arts sake, then think about it as small business development. Seen in that light, investing in the arts is the best economic stimulation course you could take. And taking it also puts you on the high ground of championing small business development, the creative power of your citizens, and the necessity of creative education to raise well-rounded, creatively inspired individuals capable of endless innovation (you need to water the crops, Governor).

We are fully engaged in the digital economy at this point and these are the growth industries of the future. We can help you lead the way to a dominant position in this new economy, Governor. Help us help our artists and our fellow citizens monetize their passion. Passion moves mountains. Help us replenish this natural resource through education and a dedication to creative thinking as well as critical thinking in our public schools.

Help us light up this state in celebration of self-sufficiency and the marriage of art and commerce. Help us create this economic engine that is fueled by the creative work or our citizens and by the digital economy, an economy that will help those citizens create wealth for themselves, employment for others, and cultural value for our society as a whole. That's not just support for the arts and for arts education, that is support for small business development and the power of individuals to make a difference in this world.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I welcome your comments.

John Snyder

PS Stick with us, Governor, and maybe you'll write a song with the economic impact of "You Are My Sunshine" like your esteemed predecessor Governor Jimmy Davis. That's a billion dollar song, Governor, and we have more where that came from.

Expert in Business Planning and Entrepreneurship Comes to Class

John — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:59:25 -0800

Expert in Business Planning and Entrepreneurship Comes to Class

Article:

I invited a guest speaker to class the other night and he showed an old video about entrepreneurship. It was structured around the eight characteristics of an entrepreneur:

* Wants to work for themselves, doesn’t want to work for someone else
* Can communicate and is organized about it
* Isn’t afraid of taking risks
* Sees opportunity and takes it
* Understands the need for innovation and innovates
* Overcomes adversity, doesn’t take no for an answer
* Knows how to sell themselves and their ideas
* Ready to fight for what they believe

Sounds right. In academia this is called entrepreneurship. In the language of business and government, it’s called small business development.

Who do we know who possesses every one of these characteristics? How about every musician and every artist we know? You can’t be an artist or a musician without these characteristics.

1. Artist and musicians work for themselves even when somebody else is paying them. They can’t help it because they are inner driven, inner directed, self-inspired. We live in the DIY world because everyone CAN do it them selves. There are no barriers to entry in the music business. Any kid with a laptop and a guitar can be a record company and a publisher. There is a perfect match between these opportunities and the character of the musician and the artist. There is a perfect match between the tools of creation, marketing and distribution and the fact that the musician and artist can create “content”, songs, books, paintings, and all other types of intellectual property “product”, out of their imagination.

2. The whole point for the musician and the artist is communication. They are compelled to write something, to create something, to play gigs, to perform music, to display their work, to broadcast it, share it, post it, build it, dance it, and otherwise communicate it to other people. They CRAVE performance, the stage, and communication, and they can sure as hell can organize them selves to achieve it.

Musicians and artists are organized because they have to be organized in order to perfect their craft and their skills. The practice room is where the musician makes a beeline approach to achieving a specific goal. Musicians and artists understand method. They may not be organized in ways that their friends and family fully appreciate, but at what they do, they are naturally organized. If they weren’t they’d never make any progress. That’s why they make good lawyers – they understand method and orgainzation and they can define goals and quickly devise ways to achieve them, and they don’t stop until they do.

3. Risk? Musicians and artists take risks every time they walk on stage, perform a new work, write a new work, or display a new work. They are taking the ultimate, personal risk, and they do so with abandon and full-throated. If they make a mistake, they make it loud. And since they know what it is to prepare for a performance or a display or a book, they are not reckless so much as fearless.

4. Opportunities to musicians and artists are everyday occurrences because they create their own. And they are members of a community that they create and that offers them opportunities as individuals. The opportunities of community come from the very nature of the artists’ work. Artists create fans and followers. They create virtual communities and the communities of public performance. And these communities offer opportunities to the artist and the musician in terms of affecting and changing these communities in a cultural sense but also in the economic sense of selling them something. Seizing opportunity for artists and musicians comes naturally.

5. What is music and art if it isn’t innovation? Innovation is the whole point. Originality is an essential character trait for an artist and they all struggle and seek their own “voices”. And it is with that voice that they will create. And the drive to create is the drive to go deeper, understand more, and innovate on the most basic and resonant levels. Creativity is just another word for innovation. It is another word for life.

6. Artists and musicians live with adversity and often with opposition to what they do, without appropriate recognition or financial remuneration. They not only accept adversity, they are able to deal with it day in and day out. And they will not stop. You cannot prevent them from doing what they do or being who they are. You may as well tell a leopard to change its spots. Artists and musicians do not take no for an answer and they are generally just stubborn as hell. But they have the work ethic and creative output to back it up. The inability to take no for an answer defines the entrepreneur just as it defines the musician and the artist.

7. Artists and musicians are selling when they walk on the stage, sing a song, show a painting, publish a book, or design a building. They are keenly aware of their markets because often their markets are sitting right in front of them. And if those markets don’t like what they’re hearing or seeing they’ll let you know. And if they do, they will let you know that. They will clap, criticize, sell, buy, sing your praises, boo, carry you on their shoulders, throw crap, hate your guts, or buy everything you put out.

Artists and musicians walk that thin line of pleasing the market and leading the market. They are astute in this sense, whether they choose to abide by the market’s decision or not. And when they don’t, they apply for a grant, engaging a whole other market to please, and much easier to manipulate. In the long run it is much harder to talk people out of money than it is to earn money.

8. Artists fight the fight daily and although they might not be ruthless about it and fiercely competitive with one another, they are certainly ruthless and fiercely competitive with themselves. Artists fight the battle of self-improvement, of creating the new, of balancing their egos and psyches on the foundations of the timeless masters of the past. In that sense they are fighting history to make history. Artists are genetically driven to produce, reproduce, survive, create, and fight. Like a lioness to a her cub they are to their art. And if you’re not careful, they will bite your hand and your head off.

Need any further convincing? Can we agree that musicians and artists are natural born entrepreneurs? The word “entrepreneurs” describes the character of a person; it sums up their personality. “Oh, there goes Sally. She’s entrepreneurial.” An entrepreneur is a type of person. But entrepreneurship is also a business discipline, a structure that his rules and experientially derived formulas and doctrines. And that is the side of it that musicians and artists don’t get. Entrepreneurial acts (“look ma, I made my own CD!”) are one thing, but an entrepreneurial approach is another.

We must show artists and entrepreneurs how they can apply the doctrine and the discipline to their natural character. An entrepreneurial approach involves setting goals and making plans for achieving them, and to measure the progress of this process. An entrepreneurial approach involves defining what excellence is on every level of what you do and devising a way to achieve it.

An entrepreneurial approach involves constant improvement in not only your art but also your business. You’re always looking for ways of doing better, of improving and innovating in your business just as you do in your art. An artist or a musician can use their creativity to bear on the way and what they create and on the way and what they do in relation to that creation. It’s all the same. The artist and musician are not two people doing two different jobs, they are one person being who she or he is. The only thing that separates them from realizing their fullest potential is information. But once they have that, they are good to go.

Business is divided into disciplines: management, marketing, finance, economics, and international business, and there are many subheadings: strategic planning, statistics, human resources, decision-making, accounting, etc. When you think about the activities of a typical musician who plays gigs or artist who shows her work in a gallery or author who gives lectures and goes on promotional tours, you will see all of these elements present in some form. But the artist does not think that they possess the essential abilities of all business school students as well as all business men and women.

“You didn’t know till I told you, now I told you, now you know.”

There’s another side to this equation as well. As serendipity would have it, in addition to being a born entrepreneur, the musician and the artist can create an endless flow of intellectual property to which the exclusive rights of copyright attend. And these rights, the right to make copies, to distribute them, to publicly perform and display the work, and the right to make derivative copies, create businesses, almost all of the businesses of the entertainment world. They create record companies, publishing companies, performance rights organizations, and printing presses. They create radio stations and libraries, and they create YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, etc.

Interesting confluence of circumstance: entrepreneur creates own renewable product line out of thin air. That’s a license to print money, folks. You not only have the perfect character for the job, you can create your own intangible products that very tangible results, including profits and revenue on a massive level.

So what are you waiting for? Monetize those rights! Maybe you should start by making a list of them and the products they imply from the work you do. There’s a market for everything. “The Long Tail” tells us that. All you have to do is have as many products as you can reasonably handle and reach those people who might care about them. And all that is based on the shared values of those people with those who create the work.

It’s all about whom you know, it’s about connecting personally with people who care about what you do. It’s all about social networking, the virtual community, the live performance, and the detailed attention to all of the opportunities available to you as one who holds all of the cards. And that, my friends, is one long list of opportunities.

Make your list!

John Snyder

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Barack's First Failure

Ben — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:30:58 -0800

Article:

Inauguration day was coming to an end, another dozen balls and the first couple could finally call it a night. Throughout the day, a nation buzzed with happiness over the end of the rein of Bush the Younger and the beginning of America's 12-step program back to fiscal and national health.

But before the day gave way to celebration and eventually arguments about a stimulus package and appointees with tax issues, Aretha Franklin had to get her singin' on. Unlike the performance of Yo-yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGill, Aretha, 65, sang a difficult song with no leading melody while wearing a large gray hat complete with embedded Swarovski crystals.

Though not the song of choice at the time, how do you spell R-E-S-P-E-C-T? For artists who labored on the chitlin circuit, endured the worst racism our country has to offer and literally achieved the American dream by changing popular culture, Obama's ascent to Ruler of the Free World was the culmination of everything they had endured. It was the realized dream of Dr. Martin Luther King. It was the final nail in the coffin of the Civil War South.

It's hard to overstate the importance of the moment or the people that worked so hard over the years to realize it.

For an entire race (if not an entire class) of people, r-e-s-p-e-c-t was the real reason for the joyous inauguration atmosphere. That's why Aretha Franklin's voice was so powerful. The respect was a long time coming.

If there's another song that summarizes the feelings of that day it was Etta James' "At Last". So powerful the message, it was chosen to be the song that Barack and Michelle Obama first danced to. Etta even got a 45 second tribute right before the couple took the stage.

Then the misstep: Beyoncé sang Etta's song.

I have nothing against Beyoncé. But the first dance shouldn't be sung to karaoke. Even if that karaoke singer is one of the best in the world. No one - and I mean no one - can do Etta better than Etta.

The day after the performance, no one seemed to notice that Etta sat in the audience while Beyoncé performed the song. I, however, was pissed.

Barack Obama has done wonderful things in the days since his inauguration. He's revamped the Freedom of Information Act, closed Gitmo, stopped US torture and to a large extent, rendition. All of these are larger decisions than which performer sang a song at a celebration. But Etta James should not be overlooked.

To me, it will be a footnote in history: the first mistake by our new President.

For the longest time after that evening, it seemed like Etta had no opinion on the subject. She never expressed a desire to switch places with Beyoncé on stage. That is, until a concert in early February in Seattle when she finally cleared the air. Sarcastically calling the singer "The great Beyoncé" Etta said:

"I tell you that woman he had singing for him, singing my song, she gonna get her ass whupped."

She went on.

"I can't stand Beyoncé... [she] had no business ... singing my song that I been singing forever."

She even slammed the President himself. "You know your President, right? You know the one with the big ears? He ain't my President."

Now, those who know Etta personally can tell you that there's a mixture of righteous anger and tongue-in-cheek showmanship in her words. Days later, she clarified herself:

"I didn't really mean anything," James said. "Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude. ... That's probably what went into it."

And then the kicker: she went on to say that she was "feeling left out of something that was basically mine, that I had done every time you look around."

For Etta, the short tribute by Beyoncé was not an adequate substitute for being on stage and singing her song herself for the Obamas and for us..

Doing so would have capped an amazing career and would have allowed her to feel as so much of the rest of us did that day. At Last!

iTunes Drops DRM – So What Does it Mean?

christopher — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:14:24 -0800

Article:

It just got a whole lot harder for online music retailers to compete with iTunes. Although I stop purchasing music from iTunes years ago and buy only DRM-free music (I settled on a monthly subscription with eMusic – which will still be my jam for more obscure left-of-the-dial music for the time being), the announcement by Apple on Tuesday that they are immediately dropping DRM (Digital Rights Management) from 8 million tracks changes things slightly. Here’s what this announcement means to me:

Labels are continuing to relinquish more control over their product (which is a good thing).
It’s likely that iTunes market share will increase over and above their already commanding 70%+ of the legal online download market (which is not a good thing for competition).
Other players (like the leap year bug plagued Zune) will be able to play music from the Apple store (only after it is converted from AAC to MP3 though, which iTunes can do but is not ideal).

The truth is, aside from folks that are deep in the music business, how many consumers are really going to notice a difference? Do many casual music fans with an iPod know that iTunes had DRM files to start with?

Overall, the fact that Apple is removing DRM is definitely a step forward for the music industry. But I do tend to think that the real game changer for online music will be some sort of collective licensing model along the lines of what the EFF proposes. According to the IFPI, the ratio of unlicensed tracks downloaded to legal tracks sold is about 20 to 1. There are extreme opinions on both sides of the very complex collective licensing model discussion, but finding a way to monetize this traffic in a way that positively affects artists will have a much greater impact to the music industry than Apple’s DRM announcement. Baby steps!

Diversification and Niche Marketing

tessa — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:20:21 -0800

Article:

Some really interesting comments in the recent NYT article on Atlantic Records statement that their digital sales are surpassing their CD sales. What really struck me was how Atlantic is going about increasing their digital sales. Good quote here:

“I think we’ve figured it out,” said Julie Greenwald, president of Atlantic Records. “It used to be that you could connect five dots and sell a million records. Now there are 20 dots you can connect to sell a million records.”

I really think the same can be said for developing artists. A common thread in my course is that diversifying your revenue streams and engaging in niche marketing is a big part of making it work for musicians these days. Check out what Atlantic is doing:

Replacing compact disc sales are small bits of revenue from many sources: Atlantic Records’ digital sales include ring tones, ringbacks, satellite radio, iTunes sales and subscription services. At the same time, record labels — Atlantic included — are spending less money to market artists. In the pre-Internet days, said Ms. Greenwald, “we were so flush, we did everything in the name of promotion.” Among the cutbacks are less spending to produce videos and to support publicity tours when a new album is released.

The same principles can be (must be) applied to developing artists. Get your music out to Pandora (who accept indie submissions), start selling ringtones, start selling merch off of your own site, use TuneCore or CD Baby to get your music up on iTunes etc. Be aggressive!

Artists House's Own Debbie Cavalier of Debbie and Friends Named as a Finalist of the 8th Annual Independent Music Awards

tessa — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:32:37 -0800

Artists House's Own Debbie Cavalier of Debbie and Friends Named as a Finalist of the 8th Annual Independent Music Awards

Article:

Debbie and Friends is among a diverse group of independent musicians named as a Finalist in the 8th Annual Independent Music Awards.

Debbie Cavalier is the Dean of Continuing Education at Berklee College of Music's online extension school, Berkleemusic.com. She is also a children’s entertainer with Debbie and Friends. Her debut CD, “Story Songs and Sing Alongs,” is family music that’s fun, educational, and stylistically diverse - from original rock, pop, and show-style tunes, to down-home country and story songs.

All of us at Artists House are thrilled that Debbie's song, "Hangin' Around," is a finalist in the Independent Music Awards. The next step is to vote for the winner. The children’s music category link is here: http://tinyurl.com/5u2hnu

Please support Debbie! To enter your vote, register on the site with an email and password, and then rate the music with up to 5 stars.

Good luck, Debbie and Friends!

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Online Marketing: Don’t Forget About The Personal Connection

tessa — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:39:13 -0800

Article:

It takes about an hour for a musician to get started with basic online marketing. Setting up an account with MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, uStream, Flickr, Reverbnation, OurStage, Fanbridge, and the dozens of other options is simple, and an excellent first step. But I tend to think that some bands lose sight of the fact that online marketing is not an end on to itself. The most effective online marketing campaigns support the physical marketing efforts as well.

Two examples from this week:

1) Don Bartlett, manager of Joe Pug (via the Lefsetz letter):

“We decided to put an offer up on Joe's website and MySpace. We told any fan that if they knew anyone who might be interested in Joe's music that they could send us an email and we send them as many copies of a two-song sampler CD as they wanted. Free. We even cover the postage. To keep costs down, we invested in a cd publishing system that burns and prints them robotically. Each CD has two songs, contact info, MySpace, and a reminder that the full cd was at iTunes. If someone lived near a place where a show was scheduled, we printed that show info on there as well. People requested as few as 2 and as many as 50. We sent all of them. Requests continued to pour in, and the more we sent out the faster the new requests came in. We're at the point now where we get about 15 a day. Joe writes a thank you in each and every one. And almost instantly, sales took off. [Show] attendance jumped noticeably and MySpace/website action began a steady upward arc. More importantly, we built an incredible database of his most hardcore fans. And after receiving a mailbox full of cds for free, they are willing to do anything to help forward the cause. And it is the ultimate in target marketing...you have people who already like your music passing it on to their friends, whose tastes they presumably know.”

2) Rock/Jam band Umphrey's McGee

The band is organizing an online pre-sale campaign that gives their fans a reason to encourage others to buy the record pre-sale. They’re announcing it on their Website, as well as using banner ads on their social networking properties. Here are the details from their site:

Much like an Umphrey's show, no one is exactly sure what will happen with Mantis, the upcoming release from Umphrey's McGee. The more fans that pre-order the release, the more bonus content we'll unlock for everyone. We are leaving the amount of additional content and the makeup of some of that content entirely up to you. There are 8 total levels of material that could be unlocked containing over 45 unique & unreleased audio tracks, including behind-the-scenes perspectives, videos, and plenty of quirky surprises. Bonus Material Part I available EXCLUSIVELY to those who pre-order.

Great to see both of these bands nailing the online campaign to affect tangible change offline and facilitate a personal connection directly with their fans.

Mercury Rev Using Free Music to Connect with Fans

tessa — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:35:40 -0700

Mercury Rev Using Free Music to Connect with Fans

Article:

Of course giving away a free record is nothing new – huge bands who’ve had major label support throughout their careers (Radiohead, Prince, Nine Inch Nails, etc) have the luxury of releasing free music to their massive fanbases with the understanding that doing so will fill the seats in the stadiums when they are on tour. But how does a band capitalize on free music when they don’t have this built in community, when they are not a household name?

Although Mercury Rev was signed to Columbia for their first two records, the bulk of their material was released by then-independent V2 (Richard Branson’s post-Virgin label). The band has fluttered close to mainstream success (1998’s Deserter Songs is a masterpiece), but has remained an indie favorite playing mostly mid-sized venues.

Indie Label Yep Rock (who signed Mercury Rev for their latest, Snowflake Midnight) has put together a great plan to leverage free music to build up the bands fanbase, and draw interest to their new release. Promotion for the new record draws folks back to their Website (not their Myspace!), where the band is giving away Snowflake Midnight’s companion release Strange Attractor, another full length record. Folks that sign up for the Mercury Rev mailing list get a link to download Strange Attractor as a high quality DRM-free mp3 that can be played on any device. The free release became available on the same day as their paid release hit the stores.

I think this is good marketing: they’re providing a value add for old fans, giving new fans a reason to get on board, and most importantly, collecting a ton of email addresses that they can use down the line to announce tour dates, sell merch, sell tickets etc. And the fact that they are providing music that people can own outright, share, play at parties etc is huge. The fans are part of the action, and are playing a part in making the release of the proper record a true event (via word of mouth). There is SO much music out there, that it is easy for folks to get distracted. Bands need to take special care in keeping their existing fanbase interested, providing incentives for potential new fans, and above all continuing to build their community.

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How To Sell Music On Your Website

tessa — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:14:04 -0700

How To Sell Music On Your Website

Article:

I’ve talked at length about the fact that it’s certainly easier (and cheaper!) than ever to sell your music online using CD Baby or TuneCore as a digital distributor. And while I think it makes all the sense in the world to get your music out to iTunes, AmazonMp3, and the other online retailers, it’s also important to sell directly to the fans that are visiting your own site or blog. Selling from your own site not only provides you with a higher percentage of income than selling through a third party site, but it also affords you the ability to creatively price your music, offer higher quality FLAC or lossless files, put songs up for a limited period of time, or engage in other subscription pricing models (like what Ari Hest is doing) that is not easily possible with third party online retailers.

Where do you sign up, right? Well, that’s the catch. The process of setting up an e-commerce store on your site is not necessarily the most straightforward thing to do. Andrew Dubber, whom I first heard about when he published his e-book 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online has a great post on his blog outlining his research on selling music online. He outlines several options from straight up outsourcing it (easiest option of course, but also most expensive), to open-source e-commerce platforms and plug-ins (the most interesting being this free Wordpress plug in). (http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/)

Check out Dubber’s complete post here

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Just Six Songs

tessa — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:50:25 -0700

Article:

Daniel Levitin, author of “This is Your Brain on Music” has a new book entitled “The World in Six Songs.” In it, he says there are just six types of song in all music throughout the ages, and they help tell a story of music and human evolution.

Those six types are:

- Friendship/Social bonding

- Joy

- Comfort

- Knowledge

- Religion

- Love

To hear more about his findings, including some interesting studies on the body’s chemical reaction to music, listen to this ON POINT interview on NPR online. In it, Daniel Levitin shares findings about music and the brain.

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CD Sales On The Rise For Children’s Music

tessa — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 19:43:48 -0700

Article:

Although the music industry is in turmoil, some segments are less affected by the trend, according to a recent article in the Philadelphia Enquirer. Albums for toddlers and young children are soaring. Last year children's music sales grew more than 38 percent, from 12.3 million to 17.1 million units.

Some industry observers attribute the kiddie boom to 24-hour children's programming on cable television. Many of the hit artists, including Laurie Berkner, Milkshake, and Hot Peas 'N Butter, get invaluable exposure on the Disney Channel, Discover for Kids, and PBS's Sprout.

And though they may be downloading music for their iPods, parents still buy CDs for their children.

"A CD is an easier thing to negotiate," said Geoff Mayfield, senior analyst for Billboard magazine. "That's not to say kids can't work an MP3 player" - Fisher Price just introduced one for kids - "but a disc is simpler for them to figure out."

Read the complete article here

The Word of Mouth Manual Volume II

tessa — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:13:03 -0700

The Word of Mouth Manual Volume II

Article:

One needs only to take a walk pass the new Apple store at in Boston at 8AM to see how important word of mouth is to Apple and their new iPhone. Apple is legendary for their marketing (customer service is another thing - I waited close to an hour last week to get an iPhone, in which time Apple was only able to service ONE person). Their integrated marketing campaigns are amazing, from the traditional print, packaging, television, and branding components; to their forward thinking viral and word of mouth campaigns.

To get a large group of people to evangelize about your product or service is the end goal of any marketing campaign, and it’s something that my friend Dave Balter knows a lot about. In 2002, Dave founded BzzAgent, a word of mouth media company that currently coordinates 450,000 volunteer “agents” in the US, Canada, and the U.K.. Dave recently wrote and self-published his second book on Word of Mouth marketing, creatively titled “The Word of Mouth Manual Volume II.” It’s a great read, illustrated with examples from the Grateful Dead, Crocs, and of course, Apple. The book is for sale for $45 on Amazon, but Dave’s provided the book to a few folks for free, as a PDF download, available here. If you’ve ever been curious about how or why word of mouth marketing works, or how to get folks to start talking about your own product, I recommend you check it out.

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Legal Group: Your Mashup Is Probably Legal

Ben — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:47:15 -0700

Article:

Earlier this week the Center for Social Media, a project at the School of Communication at American University in Washington DC, released guidelines on fair use practices for video.

These guidelines provide valuable insight as to what is and isn't allowed under the fair use statue in Copyright Law as well as shed light on how the courts have interpreted fair use over the past 150 years.

The panel shows that while four types of considerations are mentioned in the law regarding fair use, judges have returned time and time again to two main questions:

- Did the use "transform" the material taken from the copyrighted work?

- Was the material used, in kind and amount, appropriate for the use?

The panel is careful to point the role good faith plays in answering these questions. The underlying consideration is whether the user acted in good faith, in light of general practice in his field.

The Center for Social Media issued six guidelines, complete with examples to help readers understand the way "transforming" the material is covered under fair use.

What's surprising is just how fair fair use can be.

For example, users can videotape their videogame sessions and post them online under fair use. This falls under the fair use provisions the describe in guideline #4 "reproducing, reposting, or quoting in order to memorialize, preserve, or rescue an experience, an event or a cultural phenomenon". This covers Stephen Colbert’s speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2006 and all those Guitar Hero videos that I posted on YouTube.

Equally interesting is what guideline #5 articulates, "copying, reposting, and recirculating a work or part of a work for purposes of launching a discussion". Here, the guidelines say that it is legal to post cultural content when it is specifically intended to provoke a discussion. This means that items such as music videos, controversial comedians, political speeches, etc. are all fair game for posting online. But, the purpose of the copying and posting needs to be clear. The mere fact that a site permits comments is not sufficient indication of intent.

It’s guideline #6 that addresses mashups, "quoting in order to recombine elements to make a new work that depends for its meaning on (often unlikely) relationships between the elements".

Here, the mashup is covered under fair use if the meaning of the copyrighted material has been transformed. The guidelines give two examples. The first is for the video "Bush Blair Endless Love" the second for the ubiquitous "Dramatic Chipmunk". In both instances, fair use is extended because the juxtaposition creates new meaning. The works stand as cultural pieces all on their own.

The document also discusses common fair use myths, including:

- If I'm not making any money of it, it's fair use.

- If I'm making any money off it (or trying to), it's not fair use.

- Fair use can't be entertaining.

- If I try to license material I've given up my chance to use fair use.

- I really need a lawyer to make the call on fair use.

The panel that put these fair use guidelines for video together are drawn from a distinguished panel of lawyers and scholars including professors from Harvard, USC, MIT, UC Berkeley, Georgetown University, and the Pittsburgh School of Law. They too have a good track record. They have previously released guidelines for documentary filmmakers that have greatly reduced copyright claims in that area. Additionally, Miro and several public broadcasters have already endorsed the guidelines.

Also worth a look is the rest of the Center's fair use section on their website as it contains a wealth of valuable information.

Amazon makes good use of Facebook

Gah650 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:02:03 -0700

Article:

I continue to be impressed by what Amazonmp3 is doing. Someone over there really gets how to leverage technology. You wouldn't think this would be so surprising being that Amazon was one of the first to leverage technology, but, man oh man, I've seen some doofus moves from companies who should know better. So, as I say, it's been nice to see someone really doing it right.

Everyone talks about how bands, companies, whomever should be using social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to their respective advantage, but no one really says exactly how you should do this.

Truth be told, this is about the first time I've seen anyone do anything really smart with social networking.

So, here's what they're doing: Amazonmp3 set up a Facebook page - nothing too ground breaking about that. But what is well-played is how they're leveraging it to allow customers to become a part of the building process of the Amazonmp3 store. Specifically, they started a discussion topic asking members of the Facebook group what album they'd like to see on sale for a day. Simple as that. No complicated rules, legal provisions, contest, blah. Just this:

Any particular album you'd like to see on sale for a day? optional: and why?

After they got some responses, they went with The Best of Talking Heads. Certainly a righteous choice.

They made the whole thing "viral" by telling everyone who comes to the Amazonmp3 store that the selection was made via their Facebook page.

Doing it this way has the result of getting more people to go to the Facebook page, and making those who are using the Facebook page feel like they're actually participating in building/defining the effort.

It's so important for companies or musicians to not just view their customers/fans as recipients of their products/services/records, but as participants in building and defining the effort.

To be sure, only a very small handful of customers/fans will engage in these types of things, but this small percentage (the early adopters/mavens/evangelists) are the ones who pull the more casual customers/fans along for the ride.

What an effort like the one by Amazon's does is identify the special people (early adopters/mavens/evangelists), and begins the process of building a relationship with them. Additionally, as is seen from the answers to Amazon's question, a tremendous amount of information is derived from the customer. And, guess what, by employing this types of gambit, you get the information for free (no expensive customer surveys, etc.), and you get real information (i.e. people aren't just filing out some questionnaire so that they can get a prize; they're doing it because they want to and because they believe their opinion matters).

Smart. Smart. Smart.

More bands need to leverage Facebook/MySpace in this manner rather than simply using it as a barely effective communication device.

Herb Alpert Foundation Awards $1.2 Million for Scholarships for Young Artists

tessa — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:29:19 -0700

Article:

The Herb Alpert Foundation, who conceived the idea for and funded the development of Artistshousemusic.org, has awarded $1.2 million for scholarships to the California State Summer School for the Arts. The scholarships include three awards in each of six categories: animation and film/video; creative writing; dance; music; theater; and visual arts. Read more about these scholarships here.

The Tangled Web of Terrestrial Radio Artist Performance Royalties

tessa — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:15:56 -0700

The Tangled Web of Terrestrial Radio Artist Performance Royalties

Article:

This past Wednesday the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property met to discuss the proposed Performance Rights Act. Like many things related to the record business, it’s a contentious issue. Depending on where you stand, the Performance Rights Act is either: A) long overdue, the artists have been getting screwed for years, or B) another instance of the RIAA (the trade organization that represents the major labels) scrambling to pull in income from anywhere they can, and in this case they are biting the hand that has fed them for years.

There’s a ton of information (and mis-information) out there, and it’s confusing. Here’s a condensed version of what’s going on, as I see it.

Background

Broadcasters in the U.S. have traditionally only paid royalties on the public performance of a composition to the appropriate performance rights organization (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC). This money is then paid to the writers of the compositions. Unlike most other western nations, broadcasters in the U.S. have never compensated the artists themselves for any public performances. The same holds true for bars, restaurants, and retail stores. For the past 80 years, the record industry and the broadcasters have lived in harmony. The record industry worked the broadcasters, songs were played on the radio, records were sold, and everyone made money.

Players

On the side of radio is the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters), represented by spokesperson Dennis Wharton. Mr. Wharton is trying to build momentum for his cause by referring to the group he represents as “America’s hometown broadcasters,” which is not the first phrase that comes to mind when I think of Clear Channel, a massive radio conglomerate and NAB member. Two members of congress, Reps. Gene Green and Mike Conaway (both from Texas, the corporate headquarters of Clear Channel) have also introduced an anti-royalties bill called the Local Radio Freedom Act, which has been gaining support in Congress.

Those in favor of the royalty include the MusicFIRST Coalition, who was represented last week by Frank Sinatra’s daughter and recording artist, Nancy Sinatra. Marybeth Peters, the Register of Copyrights, also supports the bill, as does the RIAA (who incidentally back MusicFIRST). Sound Exchange, who has close ties to the RIAA, apparently will be responsible for collecting these new royalties, similar to their current role in collecting digital performance royalties.

Details

As submitted by Rep. Howard Berman of CA, the Performance Rights Act will:

(1) grant performers of sound recordings equal rights to compensation from terrestrial broadcasters;

(2) establish a flat annual fee in lieu of payment of royalties for individual terrestrial broadcast stations with gross revenues of less than $1.25 million and for non-commercial, public broadcast stations;

(3) grant an exemption from royalty payments for broadcasts of religious services and for incidental uses of musical sound recordings; and

(4) grant terrestrial broadcast stations that make limited feature uses of sound recordings a per program license option.

(5) provides that nothing in this Act shall adversely affect the public performance rights or royalties payable to songwriters or copyright owners of musical works.

Arguments

The artist’s (and the RIAA’s) point of view is simple: the old ways of doing things no longer work in the new music economy. The artists have made significant money for the songwriters (and broadcasters) of radio hits, but have received nothing from the airplay of their music. A performance right in sound recordings has been imposed on digital services since 1995, including the controversial royalty on Internet radio. It is unfair that U.S. terrestrial radio gets a free ride when all the other radio platforms, as well as international broadcasters, are required to pay the artists for public performances.

The NAB contends that terrestrial radio has always been a partner for the artists, responsible for millions of dollars in record sales. Commonwealth Broadcasting President/CEO Steve Newberry, speaking on behalf of the NAB on Wednesday, thinks that “…local radio provides to the recording industry what no other music platform can: Pure music promotion. Radio is free, radio is pervasive, and no one is harming record label sales by stealing music from over-the-air radio.” He went on to mention that if the bill passes “…the value of this extraordinary promotion, and all of the financial benefits that come from it, will be harmed. Ultimately, less music will be played, less exposure will be provided for artists — particularly new artists — and music sales will suffer.” The NAB also believes that the blame for dropping revenues in music is misdirected, and that the real problem for artists is restrictive recording contracts.

My Opinion

The NAB and the RIAA (the jury is still out for me on Sound Exchange, who have a heavy RIAA affiliation) are not organizations that have the artist’s best interest in mind. Their job is to represent the best interest of their member companies. And although the NAB is framing this as a battle between the “local broadcasters” and the RIAA (taking advantage of the RIAA’s terrible PR problem), this issue affects artists at every stage of their career, signed and independent. Although income is falling, the broadcasters are still making money (radio revenues came in at about $20 billion in 2007, according to ICBS Broadcast Holdings President/COO Charles Warfield, who testified on behalf of the NAB) based on the content these artists produce, and to say the artists should not be compensated for this is the embodiment of the old-school record business.

For me, the real question is if terrestrial commercial radio is still effective at selling music. Fewer and fewer people are tuning in to the large commercial stations that make up a large part of the membership of the NAB, and the play lists at commercial radio are so tight that the number of artists that commercial radio “breaks,” in terms of converting radio play to mechanical royalty sales, is miniscule. While I think non-commercial radio (in particular college radio and NPR) and some commercial Triple A stations are good promotional options for independent artists (radio play helps to get folks to shows where they can buy merch, it provides some legitimacy for a press campaign, and also could work to help a licensing pitch, for example), I’m not convinced that radio works to move records anymore at such a significant rate that it pays for itself. Promoting to radio is expensive, even to non-com radio, and of course there is no guarantee you’ll get spins anyway.

Lastly, terrestrial radio is no longer in the position to say that the promotion they wield is far superior to these other non-terrestrial radio outlets that do pay a performance royalty, in particular for developing artists. I think there needs to be parity between all forms of radio: satellite, online, and terrestrial. I’m confident that non-terrestrial radio will continue to gain market share over the coming years, and I think it’s likely that terrestrial radio will continue to lose listeners, too.

My only major concern with the Performance Rights Act (other than reservations about Sound Exchange and possible collection issues) is the effect it might have on the small non-commercial terrestrial stations that work to promote local artists. The bill does stipulate that these smaller stations will pay a smaller annual flat fee of $5,000, but profit margins are so razor-thin at non-commercial radio, that even this could cause a problem.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

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Ooh Lala! (dot com)

tessa — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:31:29 -0700

Article:

Michael Robertson, founder of mp3.com and persistent tech entrepreneurposted on his blog todayabout a new music service called Lala.com under the headline "$20 Million Dollar Experiment to See if You'll Rent a Song for 10 Cents".

In his post he talks about how the new service works. The site allows users to purchase a song for a dime. When they do, that song is put into your account. You can access this account from any place with an Internet connection.

The catch? There’s no way to download the songs to your hard drive or to a portable device.

All of the major record labels are on board and Warner Brothers has invested $20 million to help them get started. Their total capital investment is $34 million, the remainder coming from the large investment group Bain Capital.

If you’d like to try the service out, you can sign up here.

Michael’s big beef with the whole thing is that the site is betting that people are willing to pay ten cents a song for web only music. He doesn’t see that as a reasonable proposition.

He may well be right. iTunes has the brand and the cache among non-tech users. It’s certainly reasonable to think that this site may have trouble bridging the generational gap. It’s reasonable to expect that a certain amount of the success of the site has to do with how well the site is promoted and cross-branded.

It’s also true that Michael missed one key feature of the site: you can buy non-DRM versions of all of the songs for $0.89. It remains to be seen if they integrate their store with iTunes the way that the Amazon store does. (Really, the Amazon store is very clever in how they implemented that feature.)

From this angle, it seems as though Amazon is their natural competitor since they both share a lower price ($0.89) and are available as non-DRM files.

More accurately, I believe the site isn’t meant to be the online retail behemoth of iTunes. It’s meant to satisfy users who spend a lot of time online and who currently listen to their music via iMeem or Last.fm. It’s conceivable that this service could make a great addition to Internet radio stations.

To me, the site looks like an attempt to answer Tim O’Reilly’s quote from Star Wars in how copyright holders should treat music listeners: "Give the wookie what he wants."

If you love making and sharing playlists online, a dime a song sounds imminently reasonable. If you want to take the music with you, it’s available for purchase in a non-DRM format cheaper than you could get it through iTunes.

It fills the niche between Pandora, Rhapsody, and iTunes. Will it be successful? Only time will tell. But just by signing up your first 50 downloads are free.

So take it for a spin and let us know what you think on the discussion boards.

Solving the Problem with Digital Music: Slimbox Duet

tessa — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:42:31 -0700

Solving the Problem with Digital Music: Slimbox Duet

Article:

After accumulating (way too many) CDs since 1987, I’m making the move to converting my collection to digital. The have decreased to the point that it makes sense to rip my CDs to a lossless format, and the truth is, while I’m a big fan of liner notes and artwork, I’ve had it with CD storage. And moving the collection is nothing short of a horror show nightmare.

The major problem with digital music for me has been playing my music at home. I’ve been using the Airport Express to wirelessly stream my digital collection to my receiver, which is a huge step up from listening to digital music on tinny computer speakers, but even then it’s still inconvenient to have to control my music selection from my computer using iTunes.

The Slimbox Duet solves this problem for me. The Duet is a two-part (hence the name) digital music solution consisting of a receiver, and the thing that really makes this product special, the remote control device. Modeled after the iPod interface (but with a slightly less responsive scroll wheel), the remote control component hooks up to the digital music library on my external hard drive, allowing me to stream anything from my collection to my home stereo – without getting up from the couch. Also, the system is compatible with streaming radio services like Pandora, Rhapsody, podcasts, and other online resources like the incredible live music archive found at www.archive.org. I’ve had the duet set up for a week, and it’s like a whole new world to me.

While the Slimbox can play virtually all audio formats, it cannot play DRM files – including almost anything purchased on iTunes (which uses Fair Play DRM). All the more reason to purchase from DRM-free online retailers like Amazon, eMusic, or the new Napster mp3 store!

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